Bill > SB354

This bill establishes a framework for the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and monitor outcome indicators for veterans in California, aiming to assess their status, evaluate program quality, and guide service improvements. These indicators will cover areas such as employment, earnings, suicide incidence, higher education access, and involvement with the child welfare and criminal justice systems. The department is authorized to collect necessary data, ensuring its confidentiality, and can establish advisory bodies, potentially including existing veteran councils, to guide this process. The bill also amends the Unemployment Insurance Code to allow the Employment Development Department (EDD), or EDD Director, to share unemployment insurance wage data with the Department of Veterans Affairs for the purposes outlined in the new Military and Veterans Code section, provided it is permitted by federal law. This allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to access quarterly wage data to better understand the employment and earnings of veterans, thereby supporting the development and monitoring of these crucial outcome indicators.